


Are There Stars in the Sky?

by GoldenRage89



Category: The Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: Angst, BAMF Katherine Pierce, Domestic Caroline Forbes/Klaus Mikaelson, Eventual Bonnie Bennett/Damon Salvatore, Eventual Happy Ending, F/F, F/M, Family Feels, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Hurt/Comfort, Klaus Mikaelson Has A Heart, Mild Sexual Content, Multi, Pining Klaus Mikaelson, Ripper Stefan Salvatore, Throuple, Vampire Elena Gilbert
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-26
Updated: 2020-09-09
Packaged: 2021-02-28 21:21:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 19,764
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23323870
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GoldenRage89/pseuds/GoldenRage89
Summary: As she put her arms around him, Klaus's mind could only focus on the word "family". Family. That's what they were. They weren't a group or a band or any of those vague, superficial terms. They were a family. After centuries, Klaus finally knew the word that described them.
Relationships: Bonnie Bennett/Damon Salvatore, Bonnie Bennett/Kol Mikaelson, Caroline Forbes/Klaus Mikaelson, Elena Gilbert/Katherine Pierce/Stefan Salvatore
Comments: 8
Kudos: 46





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hii! This is my first AO3 post. I don't even know if people read TVD fanfic anymore lol. But if you do find yourself stumbling upon my not so little story, I hope you enjoy! Also, as a shameless plug, please feel free to leave a comment!

980 A.D.

It was the cusp of dawn and day, with the sun steadily returning to its wonted throne in the morning sky, when Niklaus Mikaelson came into this world. As the pinks and oranges of the fading dawn evolved to the clear blue of day, his cries could be heard throughout the entire village. The midwife almost struggled as he squirmed, his legs creating powerful kicks. Between his strong, reverberating cries and thrashing limbs, it seemed Niklaus Mikaelson was a force that demanded reckoning as well as recognition. Little did the world know Klaus was destined to be an epic storm, striking and raging, and that this was just the beginning.

989 A.D.

Klaus watched his family as he sat perched on a rock a little way apart from them. He gazed fondly as his mother, Esther, braided his baby sister, Rebekah’s hair. Though heavily pregnant with the sixth Mikaelson child, Esther still maintained her natural elegance and beauty. Klaus smiled as her fingers moved nimbly through Rebekah’s long, blonde locks. His smile widened when without even removing her eyes from Rebekah’s halfway finished braid, Esther shouted “Kol! Magic is used to maintain the balance, not pester your eldest brother!”

Kol looked up with a sheepish face as the stick conspiratorially levitated behind Finn’s turned back fell to the ground. Klaus shook his head with a chuckle.

 _‘Kol. Always the one for trouble,’_ he thought.

“Papa, look!” the sound of Elijah’s voice nearly startled Klaus from his quiet musings. He looked over to where his older brother stood. The soft gaze that adorned Klaus’s face hardened into glare at what he saw.

Elijah stood there, his chest proudly puffed out as he showed their father the fish he had caught. Klaus watched, jealousy brewing in his chest, as Mikael affectionately rubbed Elijah’s head. A smile grew on Mikael’s face and though Klaus could not hear what he was saying, he was sure they were encourage words of pride and love.

Frowning, Klaus looked away. He felt a sad resignation. At nine years old, he was resigned to the fact his father didn’t love him.

 _‘Or at least not as much as my siblings,’_ Klaus thought. His bitter thought pattern continued as he reminisced over the relationship each one of his siblings shared with their father.

Mikael took special consideration and interest in all of his siblings. Whether taking the time to listen to Finn’s hushed words, taking Elijah out for a hunt, encouraging Kol’s magic, or telling tales of the old country to Rebekah. All of these things Mikael did for his siblings. All of this love he showed and yet Klaus had received none of it.

And Klaus tried. God, did he try. But no matter what he did, Klaus was only met with Mikael’s disinterest and temper. Mikael treated Klaus as if he weren’t his son. Every time Mikael even looked at him, Klaus could see it. He could see the contempt, the scorn. These looks were reserved for Klaus alone.

And for the life of him, Klaus couldn’t figure out why. What did he do wrong? What didn’t he do right? What was wrong with him? Why was he unloved?

“Nik!” the sound of Rebekah’s cheerful voice called him out of his destructive thoughts.

“Yes, Bekah,” Klaus spoke with a soft voice as he looked at his baby sister, who now stood in front of him.

“Nik, you promised you would take me fishing today,” Rebekah spoke, bouncing on her heels. Klaus took a minute to look at Rebekah in all her innocent glory. The sun beamed off her neatly braided blonde hair, seemingly creating a halo around her head. Her bright blue eyes brimmed with promise sprung from youth and the kind of hope only a child could possess. Not even on his worse day could Klaus deny such beautiful innocence.

“Don’t I always keep my promises, sister?” Klaus took her small hand into his. “Come let’s go.”

The widening of those bright blue eyes and the brilliant smile those pink lips formed was enough to better Klaus’s entire day.

“Hey! Wait for me!” Elijah called, running up to them. Elijah grasped Klaus’s other hand.

“Now where are we off to?” Elijah smiled, his chocolate brown eyes glittered with fondness as he looked at both Klaus and Rebekah.

And in that moment, it didn’t matter whether or not his father loved him. With the warmth radiating from his siblings’ palms into his own, Klaus didn’t need his father’s approval. He had his brother’s and sister’s. As they ran hand in hand towards the river, that was enough. Klaus felt he was enough.

999 A.D.

Blood. Blood everywhere. So much blood.

This was not supposed to happen. This was not how the night was supposed to end, the sun supposed to rise.

Blood. Blood everywhere. So much blood.

“Henrik!” Klaus heard his mother’s cry.

Klaus never thought this would happen. Klaus never thought…Klaus didn’t think…

Klaus saw his mother lean over his baby brother’s body. Her arms wrapped around his small, broken body. Esther’s waterfall of tears cascaded into Henrik’s dark hair as his blood seeped into her clothes.

_Blood. Blood everywhere. So much blood._

How could this happen?

Klaus looked around, seeing the faces of family. The grief, the hurt, the heartbreak, the blame. _The fucking blame._

_“Henrik!”_

Henrik’s blood. Henrik’s blood everywhere. So much of Henrik’s blood.

Klaus just wanted to show him the werewolves. See their transformation. The werewolves…

Klaus saw the face of Mikael. And for once he understood the contempt, the scorn. He even understood the blame. Because he felt those things himself.

Klaus deserved it. He didn’t deserve love. He deserved blame. He deserved hatred.

With one last look at his brother’s unseeing eyes, he ran. He ran away. He ran and didn’t stop running. He needed to escape the damage, the pain he caused. Although he knew he never would…escape that is.

Klaus deserved it. He deserved the blame, the hatred…because Henrik deserved so much more.

1000 A.D.

_‘Tatia, I love you.’_

Klaus practiced the words over and over again, though the racing of his heart had yet to subside. Sweat clung to his palms, dampening the stems of the wildflowers he held in one hand.

_‘Tatia, I love you.’_

That night he was going to declare his love for the first and only woman to have captured his heart. Thoughts of the fierce beauty flooded his mind. From her spirited brown eyes to her melodic voice that could soothe the cries of any child, Klaus was captivated by her every aspect. Many nights he had envisioned running his hands along her flawless olive skin and through her wild, brown hair.

Klaus smiled. He was going to tell her…he had to tell her.

For it was his love for her which got him through the months that had passed since Henrik’s death. It was the wild sight of Tatia and her powerful, calming presence that sustained Klaus through even the worst of his guilt and grief.

_‘Tatia, I love you.’_

Klaus had nearly reached her after quietly searching the entire village for her. He was surprised to see his brother, Elijah, standing in front of her. Klaus knew Elijah had felt something for Tatia as well, but he had assumed it was more of a reserved interest rather than the profound love Klaus felt.

“Elijah, it has only been you. It is only you. I feel as though it were fated that way. I love you,” Tatia suddenly spoke, tenderly placing her hand upon Elijah’s cheek.

The flowers fell from Klaus’s hands as the scene played out in front of him.

“I have loved you since the first moment I ever laid my eyes upon you and I will continue to love you for an eternity,” Elijah said earnestly, his hands finding her waist.

Klaus watched as they leaned closer and closer, until their lips finally met. As quietly as he could Klaus turned around and walked away.

There was a moment of pure nothingness, a sense of hollowness until it all came flooding in. The pain, the sadness, the hurt, the rejection. And not for the first time, Klaus wished he could turn it all off.

***

 _‘We did it to protect you,_ ’

His mother’s words echoed through Klaus’s head.

‘Oh mother, does this look like protection?’ Klaus thought, looking at the mutilated bodies that surrounded him.

_‘We could not bear to lose another child,’_

His bones still ached. Merely hours before Klaus felt as though a fire was raging through his body. His bones cracked and broke as his body had contorted in way he never knew possible.

_‘We did it because we love you.’_

The man’s blood had called to Klaus in such a way, he could not decline. As his newly emerged fangs pierced the thin, helpless vein, something was unleashed. Call it hunger, greed. Call it a beast, a monster. It was something Klaus had no control over.

But no sooner when the man fell, lifeless from his grasp, a searing pain shot through Klaus. He had fallen to the ground in agony as his body began writhing a rhythm less dance.

By the time the birds were just beginning their morning song, Klaus was bloody and naked, surrounded by several bodies.

 _‘We did it because we love you’_.

***

Klaus was a hybrid. He was the vampire his mother created and a werewolf from the gene his father, _Ansel_ , passed on.

When the truth surrounding Klaus’s true heritage finally came out, he finally understood. He finally understood his father’s contempt and that pestering feeling of isolation. _Finally_ , something to confirm what deep down he had always known.

However, that truth had been revealed _after_ his family had discovered him after the night of his first transformation…when he was surrounded by the dead bodies of several villagers. That same truth had been revealed right _before_ his mother casted a spell making his werewolf side forever dormant... _before_ proceeding then to exile him.

“Leave, Niklaus. You have proven you cannot control your bloodlust. You are a danger to us and everyone else around you. Leave before I change my mind and end your life,” Esther had spoken, clutching a stake made of the white oak that was the only thing capable of truly ending his existence.

His siblings looked between him and their mother, horror and disbelief clearly written across their faces. Rebekah even moved to take a step closer to him. He shook his head, signaling for her to stop. Rebekah’s once innocent brimming blue eyes now glistened with sadness and confusion.

“Fine, I will leave. You have made it clear that I am no longer your son. I will make it clear that you are no longer my mother and that this is no longer my family,” Klaus snarled. The hurt that filled his brothers’ and sister’s face was an image that he knew would haunt him for an eternity. Yet Klaus turned away and walked on never once looking back. In that instance Klaus felt his heart and soul harden; and the that ten-year old boy wanting his father to love him…that love-struck, passionate young man in love with the fair Tatia…died. And there were no hopes of a resurrection.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi lovelies! This chapter is hella long but please enjoy!

1492

It was the early dawn of the 16th century, and it had been nearly 500 years since Klaus’s rebirth as a creature of the night.

_‘Rather night and day,’_ Klaus thought sardonically.

500 years of Klaus reveling in blood and glory. After being cast aside by Esther, Klaus left for Europe and any care, worry, or fuck he had to give was left behind in that tired village he was forced from. For centuries now, Klaus drank and fed until his heart’s content. He turned more humans than he cared to count. He compelled his desires their satisfactions, only using violence if he felt like exerting the energy (which was rather often if he thought about it). Klaus reigned a storm of blood, terror, and lawlessness and he chose to love every second of it.

Now Klaus was a nobleman living in an exquisite castle, a little extravagant for his tastes but what the hell?

He was in the middle of hosting one of his parties, famed for scandal and debauchery. Klaus sat at the head of the long dining table, a cup of the finest red wine in his hand, though he wished it was something else red and fine.

_‘That will come in due time,’_ he thought with a smirk, as he surveyed the crowd.

Sitting at the table with him were his vampires. These vampires he had personally handpicked as humans to be a part of the greatness he was reigning, the empire he was building. They were to slave for him and do his bidding. He was their creator and he would be their reaper if they forgot the former.

Out of this inner circle, Rose and Trevor had been with Klaus the longest. He trusted them the most to take order and dare not betray him. They were loyal to him and him only.

“Klaus, may we indulge?” Rose asked tilting her head to a group of drunken women.

Klaus nodded his head, “Of course, my dear. Just do not leave a mess, I would hate for you to have to clean it up.”

“Yes sire,” Rose said, collecting her skirts as she rose. Trevor followed her to the group. Klaus smirked with approval as they led the group out of the main room. Looking around the room of dancing drunks, Klaus figured it was time he had a real drink too.

The minute he rose from his seat was the minute _she_ walked in and Klaus felt the breath leave his body.

_‘Tatia!’_ he thought. But it couldn’t have been. Tatia was long dead, nothing but a bittersweet memory tucked away deep inside.

But who was this woman that dared have the same face of the woman Klaus once loved with everything in him? She was Tatia’s exact replica. From the spirited brown eyes to the flawless olive skin to the wild brown hair.

Klaus found his breath again. He knew it wasn’t Tatia nor her ghost as everyone else could see the brown-haired beauty as well. But Klaus had to figure out the meaning behind this phenomenon. He was determined to do so.

Klaus was now directly in front of her though he did not remember his feet ever carrying him towards her.

“Klaus Mikaelson. Though I am sure you already knew that darling,” Klaus said, with an arrogant smirk.

The Tatia lookalike raised her eyebrows in surprise before a similar smirk settled on her face.

“Katerina Petrova. And I am very sure you will get to know me as well,” she said, before curtsying and extending a hand. When Klaus placed a kiss on her hand, it was the beginning of something very wicked.

***

Collapsing on his bed next to a breathless Katerina, Klaus ran hand through his own long, blonde hair damp with sweat.

“Well I cannot say that I was not expecting that,” Katerina spoke in sultry voice as her hand stroked Klaus’s bare chest.

Something clicked within Klaus and he could not pinpoint the exact trigger. Whether it was the scent of Katerina’s arousal clinging to the air, the feel of her naked body pressed against his or her voice which reminded him so much of his dear Tatia. But before he himself could even register, he quickly pinned Katerina on her back.

Her face contorted with fear as Klaus’s face contorted with something else entirely. A small scream escaped from her before Klaus locked his blue eyes on her brown saying, “Do not be afraid. As a matter of fact, feel extreme pleasure.”

From then on Katerina’s screams were those of pleasure even as Klaus’s fangs plunged into her neck.

***

During the course of a couple of weeks, Klaus kept a compelled Katerina by his side. Though he took pleasure in drinking from her and her being his lover, he had other more pressing reasons why he kept her on his arm.

Klaus was desperately trying to figure out how she could have the face of Tatia. Katerina could not have just been a distant relative, it had to be something else, the resemblance was too eerie. With the assistance of Rose and Trevor, Klaus was able to discover the truth behind Katerina Petrova.

She was a doppelganger. Tatia had been a doppelganger as well. Their roots going all the way back to the very first in their line Amara. But that was not all. With this information, Klaus was able to figure out something very precious.

If Tatia’s blood was the catalyst in his vampire transformation, who was to say Katerina’s blood couldn’t offer the same.

_‘Maybe to a werewolf perhaps?’_ Klaus thought as he gazed at Katerina as she spoke with Trevor. Perhaps with her blood, Klaus could create hybrids. He could create the very same creature he was.

“Yes,” Klaus said aloud, not caring if anyone heard him. His gaze intensified on Katerina. She was his ultimate salvation. She would quell that echoing loneliness he felt with the blood running through her veins. She would give him the love he still desperately wanted with the face from his past.

He could see it then. He could see it.

Klaus would finally win.

***

“Hello, brother,” Elijah spoke to Klaus as he went to stand beside him.

Klaus almost groaned aloud at the sound of Elijah’s voice. Klaus had hoped he was wrong for once when Elijah’s scent drifted into his nose. As the smell of pine and cinnamon played at his nose, Klaus had hoped that his senses were wrong or that his mind was playing a cruel practical joke on him.

Of course not.

His futile hopes were dashed as soon as Elijah had opened up his mouth. Now he stood beside Klaus on the castle’s balcony overlooking the town.

“It has been some time, Elijah,” Klaus finally acknowledged his brother’s presence.

“Almost 70 years.”

“Hmm,” Klaus said, thinking back to when he had last seen his older brother. Although nearly 500 years before, the words _‘…this is no longer my family’_ left Klaus’s mouth, he still maintained minimal contact with them.

Nearly 20 years after arriving in Europe, Klaus had run into Finn. From the eldest Mikaelson, Klaus learned that all of his siblings, though scattered, were now in Europe. Though a large part of himself told Klaus to leave it be, there was still that powerful, echoing whisper of the boy Klaus used to be. The boy whose hands held the ones of his little sister and older brother as they ran to the river alongside their tiny village.

That small part of Klaus led him to a ‘chance encounter’ with each one of his siblings. And even though he rarely saw them since those first encounters, Klaus knew where each one of his brothers and sister resided.

Finn was living in a small village in Italy with a woman named Sage, and had been for the past 100 years. (Klaus could never understand how a wicked slip such as Sage could ever capture the attention and heart of the most monotonous Mikaelson.)

Kol was running amuck in Spain with a group of witches, recklessly leaving a trail of bodies in his wake. (Klaus figured Kol never grew out of his childish, mischievous ways and was just asking to be staked and put down like a dog.)

Rebekah was still looking for love in all the wrong places in France, as she tried to pretend she wasn’t a centuries old vampire. (Klaus thought Rebekah needed to get a grip on reality and stop trying to be the bright-eyed girl who no longer existed.)

Elijah was supposed to be on the opposite end of the country where Klaus had left him 70 years before…so he had no idea why the hell he was standing next to him in that moment.

“I know what you are doing, Klaus,” Elijah spoke, never one to beat around the bush.

Klaus finally turned his head to regard his brother. His long brown strands of hair were held clipped back from his face. His clothes reflected his status of a noblemen. And as per usual, Elijah’s dark eyes held a grave seriousness.

“And what is your wayward albeit younger, handsomer brother doing now Elijah?” Klaus mocked.

“Klaus?” Katerina’s voice came from the doorway. Her voice caught the attention of both brothers as they both turned to face her. Klaus noticed with an unexpected, suspicious jealousy when her gaze lingered on Elijah for a minute too long.

“Oh, I see that you have a visitor,” Katerina smiled. “I suppose I will leave you then.”

With a last curious look at Elijah, Katerina left.

“My God, she looks just like her,” Klaus knew to whom Elijah was referring to.

“But she is not her,” Klaus spoke with a hard edge, the underlying warning evident in his voice. Katerina was not Tatia and Elijah was not the brother who was going to be chosen this time.

“Of that, I am well aware. But are you?” Elijah quipped back. Klaus’s only response was the narrow of his blue eyes.

“As I have stated before, I know what you are doing. I know what you are doing with the doppelganger,” Elijah continued. Klaus kept his face blank as a range of emotions passed within him. He was unsurprised Elijah had figured out he had the doppelganger. Elijah had the annoying habit of making Klaus’s business, his business. But Klaus felt a small sense of panic that Elijah could have figured out his plan for hybrids. Though it was a plan Klaus had kept close to his chest, the paranoia ran rampant as Klaus imagined his brother’s response.

“And I ask again, brother. What is it that I am doing?” Klaus asked, his voice guarded.

“I know that you are using that girl to fill in for Tatia. You are using to her to live the life you wanted with Tatia. And for that Klaus you are wrong because she is not the woman you once loved,” Elijah stated.

For a moment, Klaus genuinely wanted to laugh at himself and the situation. He wanted to burst out into laughter until tears ran down his cheeks and his sides were sore. First, he was amused by the fact that for a second he actually believed Elijah knew a plan he had never actually discussed with anyone. Second, he found the irony hysterical. Of course, of course, his morally, upright, (more like uptight) pain in the ass, older brother would travel hundreds of miles because he heard his little brother was “defiling” a girl he had never even met.

And with that Klaus’s amusement turned to annoyance. His actions were none of Elijah’s concern and he told him as such.

“They are of my concern. What kind of man would I be if I sat back and allowed you to use this girl in the way you have been?” Elijah asked.

_‘You would be my brother,’_ Klaus thought, but he said, “You are not a man. And I would be careful if I were you brother, you are beginning to sound like our dear Rebekah.”

“Klaus,” Elijah sighed, clearly frustrated. “All I ask is that you let Katerina go.”

“And if I do not?” Klaus challenged, he would be damned if Elijah ruined this for him.

“Do you really want to go down that path?” Elijah asked. And for once throughout that entire conversation, Elijah’s calm façade slipped, and Klaus saw the pure threat written across his face.

***

Klaus’s eyes narrowed as he watched Katerina and Elijah glide across the ballroom. Her hand rested on his shoulder, his on her waist, and their free hands were clasped tightly together. Their eyes focused only on each other.

Klaus swallowed the rest of his drink in one gulp before tossing it carelessly aside.

_‘Fuck it,’_ he thought, before grabbing the whole bottle and taking a healthy sip. It had been a little over a month since Elijah had first arrived and not for the first time Klaus wished he had stayed his self-righteous ass away. Due to Elijah’s incessant pestering and mounting threats, Klaus released his compulsion on Katerina two weeks prior.

But it was not just Elijah’s prompting that led to Klaus’s ultimate decision. He wanted to prove something. He wanted to prove something to Elijah. He wanted to show him that Katerina would stay regardless of whether or not she was compelled. She would stay because she _chose him_. She would choose him over her supposed freedom. And that’s what Klaus wanted Elijah to see.

But there was, also, that piece of Klaus that needed to see it too. An aching piece of his soul that tirelessly pursued the answer to the question of whether or not he was worth choosing.

_‘And that turned out so well,’_ Klaus thought bitterly. His glare remained on the couple, he was oblivious to the rest of the festivities taking place in his castle.

Katerina had stayed, but it was obvious that her choice had nothing to do with Klaus and all that he offered. Klaus had to stand on the sidelines and watch as she and Elijah grew closer. He had to watch as her affections trickled to his brother. He had to witness Elijah slowly begin to return those same affections.

This only made Klaus relive that particularly sad and pathetic night when he had actually picked flowers and prepared a declaration of love for a woman who only ever saw his brother. The ironic sight of a woman with the same exact face pulling the same exact move only made Klaus feel so tired and old, if you could understand.

_‘Means to an end. Means to an end,’_ Klaus reminded himself for the thousandth time. The only reason he tolerated the overplayed, unoriginal love affair between his brother and a doppelganger was because in the end he would be winning. As long as Katerina cared for Elijah, she would stay. The longer she stayed, the longer Klaus had to fulfill his ultimate plan for his hybrids.

After swearing Trevor and Rose to secrecy, Klaus had revealed his master plan to them. He had them locate and find him a werewolf pack. His two vampires were able to complete their assignment as they found a small pack in Northern England. With that part of the plan complete, all Klaus had to do was figure out a way to get Katerina’s blood in one of those werewolves.

He had the doppelganger and he had the wolves. He had all the components, he just needed a way to bring them all into accordance.

But Klaus did not doubt he would find a way. He was not going to let this chance slip away.

_‘Let Elijah have the girl, let him revel in her, relive his days with Tatia like a sad, lovesick fool. I will have the ultimate win.’_

_***_

When Klaus’s plan came crashing down, burning down in flames and blood, he was genuinely not expecting it. As he walked down the corridor with Elijah by his side, in his mind he was laughing with a maniacal glee. He had sent Rose to collect him a werewolf and by that night when she returned, he would have his hybrid with the help of one Katerina Petrova.

And with that he would have successfully pulled off the greatest work in all his years of existence. And he would have done so all under the nose of Elijah Mikaelson. And that idea simply tickled Klaus, filling him with the kind of mischievous happiness only naughty, little brothers knew.

What could possibly go wrong?

However, the minute Klaus and Elijah turned off the corridor and stepped into the castle’s great hall, Klaus knew all of what could go wrong.

About a dozen bodies of the servants Klaus kept littered the floor. Their throats slashed open as their blood stained the floor. Their sightless gazes faced Klaus as if asking him why.

“How lovely for you boys to join me! Do you care for a drink?” at the sound of that voice Klaus’s eyes moved to the center of the room.

Katerina stood, swaying slightly as if she were drunk or on the verge of a mental breakdown. Her normally, silky brown curls were a wild, tangled mess. Her eyes shined with an uncontained, animalistic wildness.

But that is not what stopped Klaus’s breathing. No, it was not those aspects which made his entire body go rigid.

It was the blood that covered her entire face. The blood that stained her cheeks. The blood that dripped from her fangs. And the blood that slipped from the neck of the dead man held in her right hand.

“Katerina,” Klaus heard Elijah’s intake of breath.

“I am sorry it seems that everyone here is dead and drained, so there goes that offer of a drink,” Katerina tossed the man’s body aside as if he were trash.

“What happened to you?” Klaus questioned, still wondering if what he was seeing was actually happening.

“Isn’t it obvious? I’m a vampire now, like you. As a matter of fact, it was your blood that helped with the process,” Katerina told him with an eerily sinister smile. “Remember how I bit your lip when we kissed the other day? I bet you just thought I liked it rough, which is true. Ask your brother.”

Klaus thought rapidly back to the day before. Katerina had come to him, claiming though she had been taken with Elijah, Klaus was the one she really wanted. And when she kissed him, Klaus accepted it. The sad piece of his soul looking for his worth accepted it.

“I bet it kills you to know that was just a part of a plan. Similar to your plan which has been effectively canceled,” Katerina sneered.

“What plan?” Elijah’s voice was tense.

“Did you really think I would not found out?” Katerina spoke directly to Klaus. “Did you think you could compel me and use me as a fucking meal for your hybrids?”

“Hybrids?” Elijah questioned and Klaus wanted nothing more than for Elijah to stop talking as he began to grasp the magnitude of what was happening in that moment.

“Klaus did not tell you? He was going to use my blood to create his own family of hybrids. Quite sad and pathetic if you ask me,” Katerina sniffed.

“How did you find out?” Klaus growled.

“How do you think?” she snapped. “You should be careful who you relay your plans to in the future, darling.”

Klaus closed his eyes as he felt everything. The rage, the disappointment, that returning reminder he was alone.

“Oh, and Elijah?” Katerina continued. “I really did care for you, I might have actually loved you, but you lied to me as well. You concealed what you are and knew about Klaus compelling me. And for that I will never forgive you.”

Before either brother could react, she sped out of the room. Only the bodies remained as evidence that she had even been there.

“Klaus…” Elijah began.

“Don’t,” Klaus’s voice was tainted with anger as his eyes bled black. “Don’t say anything at all. In fact, leave and don’t return.”

***

Klaus had a temper. He had a violent streak. And sometimes his emotions got the best of him though he would never admit it. All those three things coupled with the fact his plan for hybrids was ruined led to the spilling of blood.

And God, did it spill.

After Elijah had left without protest much to Klaus’s surprise and sad delight, Klaus finally exploded. And everything within his range would be obliterated.

The rest of the human servants that remained stood no chance as Klaus’s teeth ripped into them and his claws sliced through them. Yet by the time the last servant’s heart stopped, Klaus was still not sated. Every feeling still remained.

The anger and the humiliation of being bested.

The rejection because Katerina never wanted him.

That goddamn, fucking loneliness which never ever fucking ceased.

And that tiny, restless bit that told him he did not deserve the peace he craved.

When he barged in the room his own vampires lounged, Klaus knew not one would be spared.

As he slammed a bloodied Rose into a wall with his hand wrapped around her neck, he felt little remorse.

“Klaus,” she struggled to say as her wide, frightened eyes looked around at the dead, grey bodies. She was the last one.

“It was Trevor, wasn’t it? He told Katerina about the hybrids,” Klaus snarled.

“I didn’t know. I swear Klaus, I swear. I would have told you,” Rose grasped at his hand.

Klaus plunged his hand into her chest. Rose let out a painful gasp and his fingers gripped her heart.

“And that coward left you to die,” Klaus stated. Trevor had mysteriously disappeared somewhere (suspiciously around the same time as Katerina).

“Sire, please. I have always been loyal to you,” Rose pleaded. Klaus closed his eyes. He felt the pumping flesh oozing blood in his hand. He felt the weight of her life in his hands.

And he thought of the past two centuries he had spent with Rose by his side. His precious, dutiful Rose-Marie who had never given him any reason to doubt her.

And then he thought of the past two centuries he had spent with Trevor by his side. His steadfast, right hand man who had betrayed him in the biggest way possible.

“No one is ever loyal to me,” Klaus said, his hand ripping out of her body. He looked at the heart he held in hand as Rose’s dead body slumped into him.

And for those few seconds when Klaus held her body, he wondered if that pang of regret was real or if he was imagining it.

***

Two weeks later, when Klaus had reached _Bulgaria_ , the anger had yet to dissipate. He figured it would not until he felt the bones of Katerina crack beneath his hands before plunging his fist through her chest. Or he could always torture her until death seemed like the most viable option.

Oh, the possibilities were endless.

As Klaus approached the small, humble hovel at the farthest edge of the little Bulgarian village, anticipation ran his nerves. He had found her! He had Katerina right where he wanted her and this time she would not escape.

However, when he reached the door, he noticed it slightly ajar. The strong scent of blood filled his nostrils. He entered the home and without invitation, he kind of knew what to expect.

Klaus looked down when he felt himself step on something. His lifted his foot to see a hand and as his gaze drifted he saw that it was attached to a dark-haired man lying face down. Immediately Klaus knew he was dead. He looked around to see the bodies of a woman and a teenage girl. All victims lied with their throats ripped open.

The sound of quiet sobs caught Klaus’s attention. In the center of it all was the woman he had every attention on killing.

Katerina kneeled hunched over with her back towards him as the sound of her cries reached Klaus’s ears and the smell of her salty tears reached his nose.

“Klaus. You have come to kill me I assume?” she spoke quietly.

“Yes,” Klaus answered without hesitation. “Did you do this?”

“Murder my entire family?” Katerina laughed humorlessly as her back straightened, though her gaze remained on the wall in front of her. “No. Not directly at least.”

“Is that so?”

“I think their fates were sealed the moment I met you. Everything went wrong the minute you told me your name,” Katerina sounded hollow.

“No, everything went wrong when you took it upon yourself to turn,” Klaus seethed as he took a step closer to her.

“Perhaps. It was Trevor who told me the truth about you. It was, also, Trevor who did _this_.”

“Now why would he kill your family? He was the one to help you,” Klaus was momentarily confused.

“I broke my promise of forever with him,” Katerina continued as if reading his mind. “Do not judge me. I did what I had to do to escape from you. So what if I had to break a few hearts to survive?”

“Well you know what they say…what comes around goes around,” Klaus took another step closer to her.

“Yes, they do. That is why I am going to rip Trevor’s heart out and you are going to help me find him,” Katerina stood up and finally faced him.

“And what the bloody hell makes you think I would ever help you? You betrayed me and I have every intention in making you pay,” Klaus’s eyes raged with a blue storm. His footsteps led him directly to her and he loomed menacingly over her.

“I did not betray you. How could I? I never agreed to your deranged plan!” Klaus was surprised when Katerina actually took a step closer to him, looking him straight in the eye. “And you will help me because as much as you hate me, you hate Trevor more. He is the one who betrayed you after two centuries after all. It must burn you up inside how it was the person you believed to be the most loyal that betrayed you like this?”

Klaus’s nostrils flared as he considered what she said to him. He was angry. Angry enough to forgo his earlier thoughts of torture and just rip her head off…but he didn’t. Because as much as he hated to admit it, Katerina was right. Trevor was the ultimate traitor.

***

Klaus watched as Katerina ripped the arm from Trevor’s lifeless body. He stood off to the side as she snarled and raged, destroying and raving.

Two days after Klaus found Katerina, they discovered Trevor on his way out of Bulgaria. Klaus had immediately stepped off to the side as Katerina hurled herself at Trevor. This was her revenge quest and hers only.

But no matter who won, Klaus would still kill them. At least in this way, he got live entertainment of some sort.

Katerina had surprised Klaus. Though she was a newborn and Trevor had centuries on her, she fought long and hard. Her savagery and wrath matched Trevor’s age and skill. Even when the tide turned against her, she still fought with a hell’s fury. With one arm bent at an odd angle, hair missing from her scalp, and blood profusely pouring from her side, Katerina had plunged a stake into Trevor’s heart.

Now she was in the midst of tearing his body apart.

“Finally done, darling?” Klaus asked when she leaned against tree, breathing heavily. Body parts littered the clearing.

“It still hurts. Why does it still hurt?” she spoke to herself as if Klaus was not there.

“Did you truly believe killing him would erase the pain you feel? Staking him and tearing off his limbs were never going to bring back your family,” Klaus said.

Katerina sent him a wild look as tears prickled in her eyes.

“He took everyone from me. Everyone. I have no one,” Katerina gasped. As Klaus looked at her wide, brown eyes filled with realization, he felt his earlier plan to kill her stagger. Because he recognized that look. Lord, did he recognize that look, the look he was so used to wearing himself. That look you have when realize how truly alone you are in this world.

“Come Katerina, we must go. Someone will find us and then there will be an even bigger bloodbath,” Klaus surprised himself further when he stretched out a hand to her.

Katerina looked down at his hand. Her face hardened and she stood straight.

“Katerina Petrova is dead,” she stated, her voice hard like steel. That was the night Katherine Pierce awakened and Katerina Petrova died joining the boy Klaus Mikaelson used to be.

1512

“You missed me sire?” Katherine’s form stood in the doorway of Klaus’s bedroom. Klaus rose from where he laid upon his bed.

“How could I miss someone who makes sure to haunt me every chance they get?” Klaus smirked.

Twenty years. Twenty years passed exactly since the night Klaus had first met Miss Katherine Pierce. No, he was not referring to that night at the party but rather the night she brutally murdered Trevor. Ever since that night, Klaus and Katherine had been…friends?

No that wasn’t the word, Klaus was not sure as to what word he would use to describe the relationship he and Katherine shared. For the past two decades, they had roamed and traveled all of Europe, feeding and precipitating mayhem wherever they went. Though Katherine would often venture off alone for weeks, even months at a time, she always returned to Klaus. She said she left because he was too much at times with his greed and bloodlust, and that he hardly left anyone for her to partake in. And she said she only returned because Klaus would be bored without her presence. (Though Klaus suspected she became lonely on her own and he was the only beacon of companionship.)

“Please, you love having me around. I make your life infinitely more interesting,” Katherine scoffed. She walked around him, her light brown gown drifted across the floor.

“You are really enjoying being a noblewoman. Did you enjoy that trip to Florence? You were gone for nearly three months,” Klaus spoke.

“It was absolutely divine. The food there was ravishing,” Katherine bared her fangs. “Now what do you have planned for me? Personally, I would love to go for a hunt.”

Klaus smirked, “That can be arranged.”

“And perhaps when we are done, you could feed me dessert,” Katherine spoke, her eyes roaming down appreciatively over Klaus’s bare torso.

“You wish,” Klaus grinned, reaching for his shirt.

***

Klaus stood behind a tree as he watched the moonlit path for his next meal. A dark grin stretched across his face as a lone figure trailed down the path.

_‘Stupid girl,’_ Klaus thought. What imbecile would be walking alone at night? Much less a young girl. Though a cloak covered her features, Klaus could tell she was a female. And she had to be young because was not the expression ‘young and dumb’? An older woman would be wise enough to be accompanied with someone else.

Nodding his head towards the girl, he looked at Katherine who stood across the path partially hidden by the foliage. She shared his wicked smile. With practiced discretion, Klaus made his way closer to the girl. Katherine slowly inched her way over on the opposite side. He nearly felt the wool of the girl’s cloak beneath his fingertips when he felt a searing pain in his head.

Klaus fell to his knees with a groan. He knew Katherine was in the same predicament when she fell down as well with a piercing cry as she gripped her head. The pain only intensified and Klaus was struggling to suppress a scream. With a great deal of effort, he looked up at the girl.

She turned around, pulling the hood of her cloak down. Klaus took note of the ethereal beauty she possessed. Her skin was the color of toffee and dark, wavy curls framed her heart-shaped face. And her emerald green eyes gleamed dangerously in the moonlight.

“Vampires!” she hissed.

“Already knew that, deary,” Klaus regretted his sarcastic words the minute the pain in his head increased. Katherine’s shrill cries reached his ears. He looked to see her writhing on the ground, blood poured from her nose and ears.

Klaus was much older, he knew he could take it. Katherine would not be able to.

“Listen witch…” Klaus began.

“Who sent you?” the green-eyed witch demanded. “Was it the Gemini Coven?”

“The what?” Klaus squinted his eyes.

“Did the Gemini Coven send you to kill me?” she lifted his chin with her foot. With this action and a trick of the moonlight, Klaus was able to see her more clearly. Black veins crawled up and down her neck. He was dealing with an Expression practicing witch.

Great.

“No,” Klaus gritted out. “I do not have any ties to the Gemini Coven nor do I have any idea of who they are. I am assuming they are enemies of yours. But I can assure you if you do not stop whatever the hell it is you are doing, you will make an enemy of me. And that is something you do not want.”

“And who are you exactly?” she tipped her head to the side.

“Klaus Mikaelson,” her eyes widened and with a sudden burst of strength Klaus charged at her. Wrapping a hand around her neck, he slammed her into the nearest tree. His scorching brain immediately cooled and the sound of Katherine’s screams subsided.

“The Original hybrid,” the witch gasped, looking at him with a certain awe.

“Yes, and you are?” Klaus squeezed her neck for emphasis.

“Bonnie. Bonnie Bennett,” she breathed in defeat.

_‘Of course,’_ Klaus thought. With all that power, there was no she could not be a Bennett witch.

“You have Ayanna’s eyes,” Klaus spoke aloud and Bonnie’s eyes went wide.

Later that night, Klaus had convinced Bonnie to join him and Katherine at his castle (although Katherine had insisted on ripping out Bonnie’s throat, she didn’t take too kindly to the aneurism she had received). The witch had been hesitant, but with Klaus’s prompting and persuasion of having information on her powerful ancestor Ayanna, she ultimately conceded.

Talking with Bonnie, Klaus learned that she was on a quest for vengeance. Apparently, this so-called Gemini Coven had killed her parents seven years before.

“What do you plan on doing once you find them?” Klaus asked, regarding the fierce look in her eyes.

“I plan on siphoning them of their powers right before I murder every single last one of them,” Bonnie spoke almost too casually.

“That’s a mighty plan for someone so young and small,” Klaus chuckled, eyes roaming over her 5’2 stature.

“I am a Bennett witch,” Bonnie spoke confidently.

“That you are,” Klaus said slowly. His blue eyes took in the keen witch. She was young, but she was a powerful little thing, albeit unstable considering she was more than dabbling in the darker magics.

_‘But…she could be useful in the future,’_ Klaus mused.

“Katherine and I will help you,” Klaus declared, ignoring Katherine’s sharp look.

“Thanks, but no,” Bonnie shook her head. “I can do this on my own.”

“Really you can find and destroy one of the world’s most powerful covens on your own?” Klaus challenged, eyebrow raised. With Bonnie’s hesitating look, Klaus knew he had her right where he wanted her. A Bennett witch in his debt…how fateful.

***

Klaus watched with fascination as Bonnie’s eyes eerily rolled into the back of her head, exposing the whiteness of her eyes. As the chanted Latin came spilling from her lips, every member of the Gemini Coven fell to the ground. Their groans were like music to Klaus’s ears.

Bonnie had accepted Klaus’s offer of help, and with the three of them working together they had been able to find the manor of the coven. As this was Bonnie’s mission, Klaus had given her the honor of being the first to enter. Klaus smirked as she slammed open the manor doors without so much as lifting a finger. Lightning struck in the air and a sudden gust of wind appeared as Bonnie stormed the manor.

“Theatrical much?” Katherine had commented to Klaus as they followed her.

“Says the one who ripped apart a dead body. Overkill much?” Klaus had replied.

The coven members had flooded the room to see who threatened their home. Before they could even react, Bonnie had locked every single door, blocked every window. They were effectively trapped.

Now she stood, as powerful as a Goddess, practically glowing with magic. Klaus was absolutely taken aback. It was rare to encounter such power.

“Do you remember who I am?” Bonnie began to speak. “Do you remember what you did to me? Do you remember the day you took my parents away from me? How you stole my mother’s magic and slaughtered her and my father without a second thought? Any bells ringing?”

She raised her hand, curling it into a fist and the groans turned into screams.

“But now your day of reckoning has come. You ruined the wrong witch. You ruined a Bennett witch. You murdered a Bennett witch. You destroyed the Bennett witch family. But now you will face the power of a Bennett. You forgot your place, you believed you were stronger than us. But you were wrong and you will pay for that mistake,” Bonnie’s voice held no mercy.

Klaus watched as the dark veins crawl up and down her arms and neck. Just as the blackness touched the edge of her face, a brilliant light emitted from her nearly blinding Klaus. It only grew brighter and brighter, until Bonnie’ form was completely enraptured in it. As the light reached its climactic brilliance, the members’ screams reached a spine-chilling pitch. But just as quickly as the wails came, they left just as quick. And the light finally faded.

Bonnie stood there, the black veins slowly disappearing and the green of her eyes returning.

“It’s done,” she spoke.

“Show time,” Katherine nudged Klaus’s arm. She sped to the nearest warlock and grabbed him by his throat. She vamped out, her eyes blackening and her teeth elongating.

“I bet if you had your magic you would cause the vessels in my head to burst. But you do not soo…” Katherine bit into his neck as the warlock’s screams echoed throughout the room. Once he was completely drained, she dropped him to the floor.

“Who’s next?”

“This one looks particularly tasty,” Klaus said as he sped over to a crying witch. “The smell of fear is quite mouthwatering.”

His fangs plunged in her neck and the sweet, ambrosian taste of her blood flooded his mouth.

For the next ten minutes, he and Katherine indulged on their buffet of siphoned witches. Only when the last drained body fell to the floor did he finally look back at Bonnie. Her eyes were wide as she looked at the scene before her.

“I…” her eyes became glassy with unshed tears. “Seven years. Seven years I have planned this and yet…nothing. Nothing’s changed, the pain is still there. Why is it still there?”

Klaus shared a look with Katherine, the same exact memory floating in their minds. Katherine shook her head before walking up and placing a hand on the shoulder of the distressed witch.

_‘So young and naïve these girls were,’_ Klaus thought. Bringing pain to others did nothing to quell your own. He would know. He had been trying for the past 500 years.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, hello! If you're reading this, thanks for making it this far in my story lol. I hope everyone is in good health and in good spirits! Any kudos and comments are much appreciated!

1532

Klaus stood on the balcony of his Spanish manor, watching the sunset. His blue eyes were trained on the fading oranges and yellows as the purple hues of night emerged. He had always favored sunsets over sunrises.

About ten years prior, Klaus had decided he needed a change of scenery. He had spent a good 40 years in England so it was time he moved on and Barcelona seemed as good of a place as any. Although he was sure he would one day return to England, he was content with his stylish manor and this beautiful sunset.

“Klaus!”

Klaus peered down to see Katherine standing below the balcony in only her undergarments, her long curls falling free down her back.

“I am going for a swim.”

The sparkling, blue lake that resided half a mile outside the manor was a nice perk as well.

“And you felt the need to tell me this because…

“If you can cease from being a jackass for two seconds, tell Bonnie to join me whenever she’s finished reading her grimoire,” Katherine said, turning around.

“Are you asking me or telling me?” Klaus called after her.

“What the hell do you think?” Katherine responded.

“Ungrateful bitch,” Klaus muttered as she disappeared from view. Twenty years later and the one and only Katherine Pierce was still very much in his life (though Klaus would begrudgingly admit he didn’t mind as much as one would think). But aside from the brazen vampire, there was now a powerful witch to complete the trio.

After the whole Gemini Coven debacle, Klaus had found himself the host to an unstable, Expression using witch. After the realization hit Bonnie that she had essentially just killed dozens of people, she kind of fell apart. And suddenly Klaus had to deal with a miserable, crying witch who seemed to have nowhere else to go (because she kind of just took residence in his castle like she was invited to stay). But somehow, somehow, he and Katherine out of all people were able to help put her back together. And ever since, Bonnie Bennett had been a part of their little…group? Klaus still had no idea what to refer to them as.

However, it was in their tenth year together when Klaus had commented, “You were 22 when I met you. It has been ten years since and yet you look the same the night you attacked me.”

“It was more of a counterattack,” Bonnie smirked. “And do you really think the Bennett clan wouldn’t figure out a secret to immortality?”

 _‘Of course, they would,’_ Klaus laughed to himself at the memory. Leaving the balcony behind, Klaus walked in the manor in search of Bonnie. He found her in her room, reading over her grimoire intently.

“Any luck?” he asked, leaning against her doorframe.

“No,” Bonnie sighed, closing her eyes. For the past two years, ever since Bonnie had completely rid herself of Expression, she had been unable to tap into magic. Bonnie claimed that it was a punishment from the dead Bennett spirits for abusing her power. For the first year and a half, Bonnie had accepted it as she firmly believed there had to be consequences for her actions. But that was the first year and a half. For the past six months, Bonnie had been trying to outsmart the system in order to get her magic back. Klaus had watched as she tirelessly tried spell after spell, hoping against all odds only to come up short.

“Well if it’s any consolation, I believe in you and your capabilities,” Klaus said. “Oh, and Katherine wants you to accompany her in the lake.”

“Thank you for believing me, I am beginning to lose faith in myself so it is nice to know someone still maintains that. And a swim sounds nice,” Bonnie smiled, but it didn’t reach her eyes. She squeezed Klaus’s shoulder as she walked past him.

Klaus frowned, he had grown quite fond of the witch and cared deeply for her. It troubled him that she no longer possessed the thing that made her who she was. But as an idea began to form in Klaus’s mind, he hoped he could fix that.

***

It was two months later when Klaus found out the existence of another doppelganger. It was rather a strange twist of chance that resulted in his discovery. It was a casual Wednesday evening, he and Katherine were out for a stroll in the town (more like he and Katherine were out for a hunt much to Bonnie’s disapproval) when a townsman referred to her as ‘Elena’.

At first Klaus assumed the man was just mistaken but after the man insisted that Katherine was really this ‘Elena’, Klaus’s curiosity was peaked. Through a simple use of compulsion, Klaus found that up until two months before (the same time he arrived in Spain) a girl named Elena would come through the town’s market every day. And according to the compelled man, she had the same exact face as Katherine. Their looks were completely identical aside from Elena’s straight hair.

From this, an investigation was spurred by Klaus. And he discovered that there was indeed another doppelganger in the world. This only triggered a hunger in Klaus, a greed to know more. He learned the following things:

Her name was Elena Gilbert. She was an orphan as her parents were killed when she was a child.

She was 18 years old.

She was originally from England but now resided in Spain.

She was not alone.

From what Klaus had gathered from various sources, she almost always had a blonde-haired companion with her. Klaus figured the mysterious girl was simply just a friend of Elena’s. An easily disposable friend.

Oh, and one more thing Klaus learned:

The best things happened to those who waited.

His dreams of hybrids would finally come to fruition.

***

“Are you sure she’s here?” Katherine asked as she stepped further into the cave.

“The house was empty, Katherine. And this is where the scent led,” Klaus said, annoyed Katherine was questioning him.

Klaus had located the new doppelganger the day before. It was tricky, he would admit. It was almost as if she knew she was being hunted. But alas, after searching high and low, he discovered the location of the Gilbert girl. She resided on the edge of a small village in Madrid.

Klaus had convinced Katherine into joining him in collecting the prized doppelganger.

_“Why would I help you do the same exact thing you tried to do to me but with another girl?” Katherine asked, a scowl marring her features._

_“You may not be inclined to help me but I know you, Katherine. It is eating away at you that another girl is gallivanting around in Spain with your face. You need to see her,” Klaus crowded her space._

That is how Klaus and Katherine ended up searching a damp, cold cave after finding the doppelganger’s home empty.

“I hear someone,” Klaus said, the hair on his neck raising. “Go find the girl and I shall deal with this.”

Katherine nodded her head once before she sped off.

Taking a deep breath, Klaus closed his eyes. He listened harder for the movement he had heard earlier. Squeezing his eyes tighter and angling his head better, he heard it. Just over the soft pitter patter of water droplets, he heard the faint breaths of someone.

_‘I got y-_

Klaus did not have the chance to finish his thought when he felt something or _someone_ hurdle into him from the back. Completely taken by surprised, he stumbled forward, almost falling flat on his face. Angered, Klaus straightened himself and whipped around.

Nothing.

“Where are you?!” Klaus snarled, his fangs showing. As if on cue, he heard a noise echo off the wall behind him. He was greeted with a splash of liquid in his face. Klaus released a roar as he clutched his face. He could feel his eyes burning.

“Vervain!” he hissed. And before Klaus knew it, he was swept off his feet and slammed into the ground. Before Klaus had the chance to register and react to what was happening, legs straddled him on either side. A figure hunched over him, a stake held in their gloved hand. Although, a green cloak obscured most of the girl’s features, her wispy, blonde locks fell forward out of the hand.

 _‘The blonde-haired companion…is a vampire,’_ the realization dawned on Klaus as the hand containing the stake plunged towards his chest. Klaus caught her wrist in the nick of time. Though his face still felt as if it were in flames and his eyes streamed with tears, he managed to flip her over within a nanosecond.

His attacker landed on her back with a pained groan. Klaus gripped her neck as he pinned her down. He noticed the hood had fallen off, revealing her face to him.

Their eyes met and Klaus lost himself for a second. For a moment, all he was aware of was the blue of her eyes. The oceanic pools…Klaus was swimming in…

“Look who I found!” Katherine’s voice brought him back in time. Klaus looked up from his captive to see the catlike grin on her face. In her arms, she held a struggling girl. A girl with her face.

A smile grew on Klaus’s face.

“Elena! No!” spoke a raspy voice.

Klaus’s attention was drawn back to the girl beneath him. She squirmed more as she tried to fight against his hold. Distress clearly sparkled in her blue eyes.

“And this is the blonde-haired friend, I presume. What do you want to do with her?” Katherine asked.

Klaus peered at the girl with interest. Not many people managed to get the best of him _ever_ yet this girl, this _obvious_ newborn vampire, quite literally swept him off his feet.

“She’s coming with us,” Klaus stated, as he snapped her neck.

***

Klaus watched as the blonde-haired girl began to twitch on the ground, finally coming to. He had been watching her from outside the cell that contained her for nearly an hour. He was trying to figure her out. Out of all the information he had gathered on Elena Gilbert, he had not found out that she was traveling with a vampire. He had questions and he wanted answers.

“Elena!” was the first thing to escape the blonde girl’s mouth when she finally awoken.

“She’s not here,” Klaus spoke casually. “I mean she is, just not _here_.”

“Where is she? What did you do to her?” she demanded, her blue eyes blazing.

Klaus regarded her, a little too fascinated with her feistiness and fearless behavior.

“Well she’s not dead of course because that would defeat the purpose of her even being here,” Klaus chuckled slightly.

“I want to see her,” she snapped.

“We will get to that but right now I find myself more interested in you at the moment. Not many people catch me off guard. What is your name?”

“Fuck you.”

 _‘I wish you would,’_ were the words that nearly left Klaus’s mouth before he checked himself in that split second.

“Well if you do not wish to tell me your name, I am sure I can get it out of Elena. I need her alive but I am sure her heart will not stop beating due to a few broken bones,” Klaus began to turn around.

“Wait!” that voice rasped.

 _‘Good girl,’_ Klaus grinned inwardly. He turned back to see his captive with her eyes closed, taking a deep breath.

“Caroline. My name is Caroline,” she said.

“Caroline,” Klaus spoke her name slowly, testing it against his tongue. “Caroline. What a fitting name.”

Caroline merely glared at him.

“Well Caroline, it seems you and the doppelganger have bounced around from place to place. Almost as if you knew you were being chased,” Klaus raised an eyebrow.

“Well Niklaus, when your sister is a doppelganger that makes her a target of many,” Caroline crossed her arms across her chest.

“Sister? I had not noticed the resemblance.”

“Adoptive sister if you must know.”

“Interesting,” Klaus thought for a minute. “When did you turn?”

“How is that relevant?”

“I told you I am more interested in you at the moment. Now answer the question.”

Caroline sighed in annoyance, shaking her head before answering, “Eight years ago. It was kind of your fault actually.”

“Really? I am sure I would have remembered you,” Klaus allowed his eyes to roam over appreciatively.

“You are disgusting,” Caroline snapped. “And it was your fault because the vampire who turned me was the same vampire who killed Elena’s family before taking her. They took Elena because they wanted to offer her up to you. They wanted to get in the oh so powerful hybrid’s good graces. I was just a pet they picked up along the way.”

“You obviously escaped.”

“Yes. I did,” Caroline spoke with an edge.

“And ever since then you have been running? You had nowhere else to go?” Klaus took a step closer to the bars separating them.

“My mother was a part of a council of vampire hunters. She sent me away claiming that I was a monster,” Caroline said lowly. An image of his mother floated through Klaus’s mind. Her stern, unapologetic face as she held a stake pointed at him, banishing him from their home.

“But I am not a monster. You are, Klaus,” Caroline’s glare on him intensified.

“Is that so?” Klaus responded, struck by her words.

“Yes, it is. I know about you, Klaus. I have done my research. You have murdered and turned hundreds without an ounce of remorse. You compel and bend people to your will just for your sick pleasure. And you are willing to use an 18-year old girl to create your army of abominations!” Caroline seethed.

“Abominations?” Klaus growled lowly. He could feel that infamous temper beginning to rise.

“Yes!” Caroline practically shouted. “You want to create a werewolf and a vampire into one. You want to take a werewolf and alter it just so you will not be alone. That is selfish and unnatural!”

Klaus stared wide-eyed into the blue eyes that mirrored his own. For a minute, he felt a sheer sense of panic. She read him so easily. She saw through him. This girl, this baby vamp figured him out as if he were a simple puzzle. Klaus looked at Caroline, truly looked at her. She stood there, chin up, her blue eyes staring into his unflinchingly. Her arms folded across her chest showed the muscle, the strength lining them. And though she was dressed in a mere peasant dress and an old cloak, she stood with such a pride that you would have thought she was wearing the clothes of royalty.

“Just because I have showed an interest in you does not grant you permission to speak to me in any way you wish. Do not think for one second I will not rip your heart out of your chest and feed it to you. I am the most powerful being walking this entire Earth, I will not be spoken to with such disrespect. And as the most powerful being, I will do whatever I want. I will feed and turn whoever I want. I will compel whoever I fancy. And I will create my army of hybrids with no one’s consent but my own,” Klaus voiced. “And for the record Caroline, you are a monster. You are a vampire therefore you are just as unnatural.”

Caroline’s lips tightened into a thin lip. Content with her silence, Klaus began to take his leave.

“Klaus!” Caroline’s voice stopped. “I will not let you hurt or use Elena.”

“We will see about that.”

***

Klaus was not completely merciless…well he was, but that did not mean he did not have his moments. That did not mean his soul had been completely blackened and withered.

He decided to grant Caroline the opportunity to see Elena. His tight grasp on Caroline’s arm only loosened when he had finally escorted her to the manor’s main room. He let go of her as she ran to Elena who had been brought up by Katherine.

The two girls collided into each other and held each other tightly. Klaus could see how much they meant to each other. A mixture of relief and love were the expressions painted across their faces. They continued to hold onto each other until Elena pulled away a little.

“Caroline,” she spoke so low that even Klaus had to strain to hear her.

“Are you sure?” the expression on Caroline’s face was torn.

 _‘Sure of what?’_ Klaus frowned.

“Yes,” Elena answered in the same hushed tone. Caroline placed her hands on either side of Elena’s face.

“No!” Klaus shouted as he realized what was happening right in front of him.

**_SNAP!_ **

The cracking of the bones in Elena’s neck echoed throughout the room as she fell to the floor.

For a minute all was quiet, the shock of the unforeseen moment settling in. Klaus stared with large eyes at the dead body of Elena Gilbert. The dead body of the doppelganger. And with that dead doppelganger went his chance for his hybrids.

“I am sorry, Elena,” Caroline whispered.

Klaus turned his gaze back to her and he let out a tremendous roar.

“You bitch!” Klaus howled as he slammed her onto the ground. His hand reached for her throat and he nearly crushed it with the amount of pressure he used.

“What have you done?!”

“W-what I-I h-had to do,” Caroline struggled to say under his unwavering grasp. “G-gave h-her my b-blood. C-cannot make h-hybrid w-with a vampire.”

Klaus roared with rage as he plunged his hand into her chest. Feeling her heart between his fingertips, he felt that familiar balance of life and death. He returned to that familiar God-like position as the ultimate decider. He squeezed harder as Caroline gasped with pain.

He looked at her. He looked at this defiant, little vampire who dared to destroy the chance he had been searching for. She had walked in and snatched his heart’s greatest wish as if it meant nothing. And when Klaus looked into those blue eyes of hers, he saw the defiance, the lack of apology. This he saw in spite of the blood leaking from her mouth, the pained gasps she made, and the literal hold on her heart.

And amidst all the bold rebellion swirling in those blue irises, Klaus saw it. He saw the fulfillment in her eyes…as if she had completed some grand feat and with that she could die. She could leave this world knowing that she had died over something worth dying for.

And for some reason when Klaus’s hand finally left her chest, there was nothing in it.

As Caroline took in huge gulps air as she fell from the brink of death, Klaus almost laughed at the irony.

A person willing to die right in his mercy and Klaus couldn’t kill them.

***

“You let her live,” Bonnie spoke to Klaus as she entered his room, carefully avoiding all the glass on his floor.

Klaus had spent the past hour, reverting back the patterns of a child. He had destroyed his entire room as if he were throwing a tantrum. His bed lied on the floor as they could not be supported by broken wooden beams. The ancient artifacts and glass collected from all over the world had greatly decreased in their value as they laid in fractured pieces on the floor. The room no longer held much privacy with the various holes in the wall never mind the fact the door was no longer on its hinges.

As Klaus had raged and annihilated everything in his path he had wondered where all this fury was when he had his hand in Caroline’s chest.

“I am well aware,” Klaus answered Bonnie as he collapsed onto his back on his bed.

“Why? Although I am glad you did not kill her as I am those other rare times you do not,” Bonnie gave him a wry smile. “But I know you Klaus Mikaelson and you do not take well to someone crossing you especially in this degree. So why did you spare her?”

“Bonnie, I am being completely honest when I say I do not know.”

***

Klaus Mikaelson was Klaus Mikaelson. He was ruthless and merciless. He was the most powerful creature on the entire Earth. So, of course, he had something much worse than death prepared for Caroline, right? That’s the only reason he let her live, right?

That passionate man who had a heart big enough to care for others was left behind in that tiny village all those centuries ago. That man died when Esther casted him aside.

But then something in his mind began to nag him.

Why did he allow Katherine to live all those years ago?

Why did he not rip out Caroline’s heart?

Why did he help Bonnie after the whole Gemini Coven debacle?

Why did he not rip out Caroline’s heart?

Why were Katherine and Bonnie two important pieces in his life? (He still could not figure out what to call this relationship of theirs.)

**_Why did he not rip out Caroline’s heart?!_ **

Honestly, the only thing that quelled the crisis happening in his mind was the appalled look on Caroline’s face when he told her the punishment for her irredeemable transgression.

“You will be my servant,” Klaus had the face of a cat with a canary.

“What?!” Caroline’s eyes widened to an enormous degree.

“You will be my servant. And Elena will be Katherine’s,” Klaus spoke again.

“No! What the hell does that even mean?” Caroline gripped the bars between them.

“First of all, you have not a choice. Second of all, you will find out,” Klaus turned around, ignoring Caroline’s cursing and shouts.

***

Under the sapphire twilight sky, Klaus stood on his balcony pondering his latest decision over a certain blonde-haired pain in his ass. He had been truly at a lost as to what he should do with her. Obviously, he couldn’t kill her because…reasons. And he could not just turn her loose, he was Klaus after all. So, making her into his servant seemed like the most viable option. In that way Caroline could pay for her actions all the while be tortured with the fact she’s doing something she probably preferred death over.

“Took you long enough,” Klaus spoke when he heard the footsteps approaching.

“Sorry, mate. I got caught up with tying loose ends and the like,” Kol said.

Before he even turned around, Klaus could picture the cocky smirk on his brother’s face. When he did face him, he was not wrong. Klaus took in the appearance of the brother he had not seen in nearly a century and a half. Kol’s once long brown hair was now cut short. He wore a simple brown, leather vest over a white linen shirt. Yet his chocolate brown eyes still contained that mischievous look.

“Loose ends?” Klaus crooked an eyebrow.

“I just had a couple of witches out for my blood is all. Nothing to worry about,” Kol waved a hand dismissively.

“Whatever, Kol. Just keep your loose ends away from this manor or we will have problems. Do you understand me?”

“Yes, brother. I understand,” Kol rolled his eyes. Klaus took a deep breath before he strangled Kol. After collecting himself, Klaus spoke again.

“I assume you are here because you can help her.”

“I would not be here if I could not. That would be a waste of both of our times,” Kol replied.

 _‘Do not stake him. Do not stake him. At least not until he helps Bonnie,’_ Klaus thought to himself. That was the only reason Klaus had sent for Kol. He believed his brother could help Bonnie tap into her magic again. Klaus knew Kol had realized his potential as a warlock before they turned. He, also, knew Kol had spent centuries in Spain with a group of witches.

“I actually bumped into the Bennett witch on my way up here. She’s quite the feisty little thing. I am sure she would have given me an aneurysm if she had her magic,” Kol said.

“I am sure it would have been well deserved,” Klaus commented earning a smirk from Kol.

“Of course. Though she may not be able to access her magic, I could still feel all that power radiating from her. She may rival you, mate. However, when I am done with her, she will definitely be able to knock you on your ass,” Kol smiled a little too much. Klaus didn’t bother to dignify that with a response.

“I ran into Rebekah and Elijah before I got here. Well more like I had to leave the country for…reasons so I stayed with them. On separate occasions, of course. Our family never could quite handle living together,” Kol laughed humorlessly.

“Riveting,” Klaus drawled, not even pretending to care.

“They miss their wayward hybrid brother.”

“I’m sure they do,” Klaus scoffed.

“I absolutely love how you do that.”

“And what do I do Kol?”

“Play the ostracized victim. Claim that none of us ever loved or accepted you when it was quite the opposite in fact. You, Elijah, and Rebekah were always as thick as thieves as children. The three of you had this seemingly unbreakable connection. Elijah adored you and Rebekah looked up to you. You were never an outsider, Klaus. I would know,” Kol stated lightly.

Klaus stared at his brother where he saw the pained look Kol had nearly concealed. Realization began to dawn on Klaus as the weight and meaning behind Kol’s words began to catch up to him.

“Kol…” Klaus began.

“It’s okay, brother. The three of you did not mean to do it. And it is fine, I play the worrisome, unhinged nuisance of a brother very well,” Kol smiled wryly.

All this time, Klaus had felt as if he were the outsider of the family. He felt as if he were in this constant bubble of loneliness that was rarely ever penetrated. And no matter how cruel Klaus could be, he would never wish that feeling on anyone. Klaus placed his hand on his baby brother’s shoulder, trying to convey the regret he felt, trying to make up for the childhood mistakes centuries later.

***

During the course of the rest of the year, Klaus’s frustrations with Caroline increased more and more. As his servant, she was essentially forced to clean up after him. Whether cleaning the broken furniture after his temper unleashed itself, compelling survivors of a village Klaus drained, or even doing his laundry, Caroline took care of it. However, when Caroline was ordered to do something, she did it (though she complained and bitched every part of the way much to Klaus’s chagrin). So that is not what left Klaus frustrated. He was frustrated because outside of her duty to him, they had no relationship. She still thought of him as a monster.

This would not frustrate Klaus as much if Caroline had not built a relationship with everyone living inside his manor. She was still as close as ever to Elena even in death. She and Bonnie had grown a close friendship as the blonde was fond of Bonnie’s gentle nature. Hell, Caroline even got along with Katherine and Kol as all three shared the same shrewd sense of humor.

To make Klaus feel even more sullen was the fact, everyone else had grown close with _each other_. For instance, Bonnie and Kol now had an intimate friendship which surprised the hell out of Klaus. Bonnie was a calm, rationale, and kind human being. And Kol was an excitable, irritable, and crass vampire. He was everything she was not. Though their personalities collided when Kol first began helping Bonnie with her magic, those differences no longer seemed to matter.

And by observing those quick little glances at each other they often exchanged when the other wasn’t looking, Klaus suspected those differences _really_ didn’t matter.

As for Katherine and Elena…Klaus still could not quite wrap his head around that.

_As Klaus walked outside to the lake, enjoying the rays of sun, a curious sound pricked his ears. He stood still for a moment, unsure as to whether or not he was actually correct in his hearing. Senses still on alert, he continued walking to the lake. He was very surprised to see the scene he had walked in on._

_Katherine and Elena sat by the lakeside together locked in a lovers’ embrace. Elena’s hands gently held Katherine’s face as Katherine’s hands weaved themselves in Elena’s straight hair. Their eyes were closed and their lips were fused together. They seemed lost in their own world, too lost to notice Klaus._

_“Ahem,” Klaus cleared his throat. With a gasp, Elena jumped to pull away from Katherine but the older vampire held her close._

_“Do you mind?” Katherine drawled._

_“No, I do not,” Klaus crossed his arms over his chest with a smirk._

_“Good,” Katherine snipped before pressing her lips back to Elena’s._

_Later when Klaus asked Katherine about the kiss, she replied, “It was a long time coming.”_

_Klaus gave her a questioning look._

_“I have been developing…feelings as of recently. Though I find that kind nature of hers absolutely sickening at times, most times I am absolutely taken by it. When I am with her, it is like she only sees the best parts of me and I like the feeling it gives me. I like her,” if Katherine was not a vampire, Klaus would have sworn she was blushing._

_Klaus did not stop there, he questioned Elena the next day about it too._

_“Katherine has fed and killed many people, more than I can count. For that alone I should hate her, and I did. But not any longer. Spending time with her I have seen the woman under the monster she tries to be. And I can assure you, Klaus it is a woman worth seeking out even if she does not believe so herself.”_

Two months later, Katherine and Elena were still a…couple? Klaus did not know whether or not they ever defined the relationship they shared.

But the point was, everyone was developing some sort of relationship and Klaus was being reminded of a feeling he often felt as a child.

Loneliness.

***

It was a week later and Klaus was doing something he had not done in nearly two hundred years.

He was drawing.

When Klaus was a child, he had an affinity for beauty. Whether it was the warm colors of sunset or the sparkling blue of water, Klaus was drawn to it. He saw it as works of art and the universe its artist. As a young boy, he had a desire to be such an artist and to create art and beauty that would fill someone with the same feeling the universe gave him. And whenever he drew or painted, he was not the forsaken son of Mikael or the tempestuous brother, he was simply Klaus Mikaelson the artist.

But then Klaus grew older, led his baby brother to his death, fell in love with the same woman as his brother, had his heartbroken by said woman, turned into vampire, slaughtered several people, found he was a hybrid, was casted aside by his own mother, etc.

As one was able to see life really got in the way for Klaus. There for Klaus Mikaelson the artist rarely made an appearance.

But that day Klaus was feeling…nostalgic. As he grabbed his stylus and a sheet of paper he thought it had been a long time since he had created something, rather than destroyed it. As he drew, Klaus was not the ruthless hybrid Original or the jaded, fractured man, he was simply Klaus Mikaelson the artist.

“What are you doing?”

Klaus almost jumped when he heard Caroline’s voice but he willed himself not to. He had been so invested in his drawing that he hadn’t heard her approach his bedroom. Klaus looked up from his desk where he sat.

“Nothing of your concern,” was Klaus’s automatic response. Sometimes he simply couldn’t help his defensive nature.

Caroline merely hummed and before Klaus knew it she had flashed over to him, stealing his sheet of paper, and sped back over to the other side of the room.

“Caroline,” Klaus growled. She always had a way of surprising him. He watched her as she scrutinized his work. Her blue eyes squinted as she scanned the beautifully drawn replica of the manor. She pinched her lips together and she appeared to be thinking. Because the artist was still at work in Klaus, he could not help but wonder if painted her, could he capture the way the sunlight seeping through his curtain illuminated her golden mane. Could he capture the way the corset hugged her torso and how the dress she wore seemed to float on air with every move she made?

“I am surprised,” Caroline said, looking up at him. “It is rather good.”

Inwardly, Klaus beamed with pride as he accepted the drawing back.

“Who knew you were actually capable of creating something beautiful?” Caroline continued.

And just like that, the pride in Klaus plummeted and was replaced with something else entirely.

“Yes, who knew?” Klaus nearly snarled back at her. “You can leave now.”

She didn’t move one bit.

“All this time I have been trying to figure you out Klaus. I have been trying to understand what makes you such a heartless man. And just when I think it is because you are incapable of love or any kind of feeling, you draw that. You draw something so…alive with feeling, something reflecting passion. Or you listen intently to Katherine complain about her problems. Or you worry about Bonnie and her magic. Or you tolerate Kol’s presence when we all know how much he irritates you. You do all these things yet you still feed and kill whenever it suits you. I have been trying to figure out you can be this passionate, loving man yet this brutal murderer,” Caroline’s eyes were lit with a blue flame.

Klaus looked at Caroline, daring not to say a word. Too many emotions flowed through him at that moment and he was afraid that if he opened his mouth, the dam would break.

“But I think I know now how you can have this dual personality,” Caroline’s raspy voice was stronger than before if that were possible. “I think you are the passionate, loving man but you hide it, you bury it. You bury it under all the killings, the temper tantrums, and the cold demeanor. You bury it because you are afraid to be rejected. You are afraid the passion and love you exude will never be returned to you. So you reject it before it rejects you with the pretense of being a monster.”

For a moment Klaus was speechless, nearly thoughtless. No one had ever seen through him so clearly before as if he were glass.

And then Caroline happened. From the day she opened her mouth, Klaus felt he had becoming more and more translucent.

“I am a monster,” those are the words Klaus ultimately settled on.

“Then it must be lonely,” Caroline shook her head.

Later that night, when the sky was near black, Klaus found Caroline standing outside the manor, enjoying the summer breeze. When she saw him, she shook her head in disgust at the blood staining his mouth. As she turned to go back inside the manor, Klaus’s words stopped her.

“I did not kill him,” Klaus said softly.

“What?”

“I had every intention in doing so, believe me. But I did not, I fed my fill, healed him and compelled his memory away. I did what you and Elena have been doing, what Katherine has started doing,” Klaus swallowed the lump in throat. “You were right.”

“I do not want to be a monster, Caroline,” Klaus looked her in the eyes. When she smiled at him for the first time, Klaus realized there were stars in the blackness in the sky.


	4. Chapter 4

1732

It was almost the mid-18th century when Klaus heard the words, “I am going to ask Bonnie to marry me.”

Looking at his brother, Klaus replied, “You are so certain?”

“It has been 200 years, mate,” Kol laughed.

 _‘So, it has,’_ Klaus thought. It had been 200 years since the night Klaus had allowed that man to live instead of draining him unto his last drop of blood. Of course, many things had changed.

Klaus and the others now lived in a lovely villa in Sicily (Klaus had decided a change of scenery was necessary about 60 years prior). Bonnie and Kol were together in the sense of lovers and had been for the majority of those two centuries. The same could have been said for Katherine and Elena, as the latter claimed they were soulmates. Klaus and Katherine were no longer the untamed vampires they had been. They no longer ravaged villages and wreaked havoc for the hell of it. For Katherine, it had been due to the influence of a certain brunette. For Klaus, it had been due to the effect of a certain blonde.

And that was probably the most profound change. The relationship between Klaus and Caroline had reached a major turning point. From enemies to best friends would be the most fitting description. After the night Klaus admitted he no longer wished to be a monster, Caroline no longer saw him as one. She no longer treated him as such. And once that barrier was broken he saw the side of her she had reserved for Elena, Bonnie, and even Katherine. 

Caroline was bright and bubbly and a tad bit bossy. She was a little dramatic at times but she always tried to see the good in everything. Yet in the same token, Caroline was fierce and strong and still every bit as defiant as when Klaus had first met her. Klaus likened her to the sun, warm and bright yet scorching and fiery.

And in return, Klaus allowed her to see sides of him that he had thought were long dead. He found himself telling her things even he himself thought he had buried and tucked away so deep, they would never be found. Klaus would tell her stories of his childhood, the good and the bad. He described to her all the cities he had traveled and seen (though he would leave out the gory details of all his feedings). Klaus would even draw for her.

In all his near 800 years of life, he had never thought he would find someone worthy and willing to listen to him, to see him.

“When will you ask her?” Klaus asked Kol, getting back into the conversation.

“Today,” Kol spoke certainly. Klaus saw the determined look on Kol’s face.

“Are you sure? Because if you break her heart, I will break you,” Klaus countered. Kol laughed at that.

“You could absolutely try…but I have loved her for two centuries and I do not see myself falling out of love with her anytime soon, if ever,” Kol said before continuing. “When I look at her I see an eternity. A present and a future with Bonnie makes the past worth it. She makes it worth it. All the bad I’ve done, the damage I’ve caused and the reckless decisions I’ve made are worth it because of her. I would go back and do it a million times over knowing that at the end of it all, she will be right there waiting for me.”

In Kol’s brown eyes, the truth and sincerity of his words were reflected. And Klaus could not have been prouder than to call Kol his brother in that moment.

“Besides I am sure you know the feeling especially where Caroline is concerned,” Kol smirked.

Klaus pushed his brother’s shoulder in response. Caroline was his best friend. They did not share the epic love his brother and Bonnie had. And he was okay with that.

Wasn’t he?

***

“Nervous?” Klaus asked as he stood beside his brother at the church’s altar.

“No,” Kol spoke assuredly. Klaus gave a genuine smile in return.

It had been a month since Kol had proposed to Bonnie. Though the proposal had been done in private, Klaus had heard the excited chorus of “yes’s” from the room they shared. Klaus would never forget the beam on Bonnie’s face as she excitedly ran through the manor proudly showing off her ring.

Today was the day the love between Kol and Bonnie would be solidified under holy matrimony. The wedding they had planned was to be small. Aside from the priest and the small band, only Klaus, Caroline, Katherine and Elena were in attendance. (Although the whole ironic idea of a priest and a church was not lost on Klaus.)

Klaus had been extremely pleased when Kol had asked him to be his best man. A part of Klaus had felt he had not deserved the title but he did his best to live up to it.

“Get ready,” Klaus said as the music began to play. The doors at the end of the long church aisle opened as Elena walked through. Bonnie had chosen Elena and Caroline as her bridesmaids and Katherine would walk her down the aisle.

Elena smiled beautifully as she walked down the aisle. As she reached the midpoint of the aisle, Caroline walked through the doors and Klaus’s attention was consumed.

She was radiant, stunning actually. A wide smile brightened Caroline’s entire face and her blue eyes twinkled. The blue gown she wore embroidered with sparkling jewels sculpted her body perfectly. Her golden locks were held up and away from her face with the exception of a few wispy strands that framed her face. She exuded elegance and Klaus wanted nothing more than to paint her, making this finite moment last an infinity.

His attention was relinquished when he heard Kol’s breath hitch beside him. With Katherine’s arm linked around hers, Bonnie began her descent down the aisle. As amazing as Caroline looked (and she was a vision), Bonnie proved that the bride was always the star of the wedding.

White flowers weaved themselves within her wavy curls matching the white dress she wore. The dress was a simple gown compared to the extravagant noblewoman costumes but on Bonnie it was a sight to see. But the thing that made her the most beautiful was the look of happiness glimmering in her green eyes. Her eyes sparkled like emeralds as her gaze locked on Kol and only Kol.

Klaus saw the same bliss in Kol’s eyes. Klaus knew, he knew, they were meant to be.

When they finally began to speak their vows, Klaus heard the love and the sincerity. And it was during this time his blue eyes found Caroline who stood on the other side of the altar. Their eyes met and Klaus could not help but smile.

“What?” Caroline mouthed with a bashful smile. Klaus shook his head. In the back of his mind he wondered how Caroline would look in white.

“You may now kiss the bride,” the priest announced. Bonnie’s and Kol’s lips met as they held the other’s hands. Klaus watched as Elena and Caroline passed each other a tissue. Klaus saw the misty look in Katherine’s eyes and he smirked. Catching sight of said smirk, Katherine immediately scowled at him. When Bonnie and Kol pulled apart, Klaus’s first thought was-

**_BOOM!_ **

Klaus went flying through the air before crashing into the church pew. His ears rang and he was 99% he had broken a few bones. With a struggling effort, he sat up and looked around.

The front of the church had been completely blown off leaving nothing but piles of broken wood, flames, and charred walls. Panicked, Klaus scanned the room for the others. Caroline struggled to stand from the pews she had crashed into. Her wrist was bent at an odd angle. With a ripped gown, Katherine knelt on the aisle floor frantically shaking a halfway conscious Elena, who had a piece of wood sticking out of her upper thigh. Still on the altar, Kol and Bonnie remained. Aside from a few scratches to his face and jacket, Kol seemed okay. However, Bonnie was not. She leaned heavily into Kol as she bled from her side.

“What the hell was that?” Klaus asked as soon as the ringing in his ears stopped.

“That was only the beginning,” said an unfamiliar voice. Their attention was all brought to where the front of the church once stood. A brown-haired man stood there with two men flanking him. He wore a white linen shirt and a brown waistcoat with brown pants to match. An arrogant smirk played on his lips and maniacal amusement danced in his blue eyes.

“Who are you?” Kol demanded.

“Malakai Parker,” he spoke. “Although most call me Kai. I’m a former member of the Gemini Coven. I am here for the Bennett witch.”

With that statement, the eyes of Klaus, Katherine, and Bonnie all widened.

“H-how-” Bonnie started.

“You weren’t stupid enough to think you killed us all, did you? You had to know some of us would be out there practicing, planning, and waiting to destroy the witch who took out almost our entire coven all those years ago,” Kai gloated.

“You are not going to destroy anyone in this room!” Kol snarled, his eyes bleeding black.

“Oh, I love how confident you are about that,” Kai chuckled. “It almost makes me feel bad for what’s about to happen.”

As soon as he said the words, a pounding started in Klaus’s head. He felt the vessels in his brain popping. He groaned, grabbing his head. He was not the only one to feel this as Caroline, Katherine and Elena fell to the ground, clutching their heads. Klaus looked back over to the altar where Kol had fallen to his knees. Pain masked Kol’s features as Bonnie tried to hold his face in her hands. He was suddenly flung away from her as Kai approached them. Klaus watched her, hating how helpless he was in that moment.

“Well, well, this has been a long time coming, hasn’t it?” Kai spoke with his arms crossed over his chest.

“I am warning you, you do not want to do this,” Bonnie slowly began to stand back up, her hand holding her bloodied side.

“Don’t I?” Kai said. He grabbed Bonnie’s arm and Bonnie gasped sharply. Klaus knew almost instantly what Kai was doing. He was siphoning Bonnie’s magic!

Klaus’s eyes scanned the room. All the vampires were very much still under attack by the massive aneurysm wave. He was able to identify the two warlocks that had followed Kai in as the source. Locking eyes with Kol, Klaus angled his head towards them. Kol nodded his head back in response. They had to take them out.

Mustering the strength, Klaus managed to speed over to them and snapped the neck of one as Kol snapped the others.

They both looked back over to Bonnie who was in the midst of flinging Kai down the center of the aisle.

“I warned you,” Bonnie hissed, her green eyes glowing. She began to walk towards Kai. She towered over his crumpled form as she spoke, “I will allow you to live if you leave within the next thirty seconds.”

Without another glance at him, Bonnie walked past him and over to where Klaus and Kol stood.

“Are you okay?” Bonnie asked, her voice trembling softly as she took Kol’s face in her hands.

“Yes I…” Kol trailed off when his eyes caught something from the direction Bonnie’s back was facing.

From then on everything seemed to happen in slow motion yet not. It was one of those moments where the definition of forever could have easily been defined in three seconds.

Klaus’s eyes followed where Kol’s gaze now rested. By the time Klaus had deciphered what had caught Kol’s attention, it was too late. Kol had already spun Bonnie around so that his back faced the stake that had been sent flying through the air. As that same stake pierced Kol’s own back and through his heart, Klaus was sure he knew what forever meant. Forever meant this moment replaying over and over in his mind. Forever meant time wishing he could have saved his brother.

“No!” Bonnie’s scream penetrated through the air as she caught Kol’s greying, lifeless body. She collapsed to the ground with Kol still in her arms.

Stunned, Klaus fell to his knees on the church’s floor beside her.

 _‘This can’t be real. This can’t…’_ Klaus thought.

“You’ll allow me to live?! You’ll allow me to live?!” Kai’s amused voice echoed through the church, as he mimicked Bonnie’s words. “I figured I owed you the same.”

Klaus finally looked at Kai. He stood in the middle of the aisle as he swayed from side to side, high off a crazed man’s triumph.

“See, it was never you, Bonnie,” Kai’s smile intensified. “I never wanted to kill you. Killing you would not be enough. When I found out that you were marrying an Original, I knew what would be enough. Especially considering I had access to a white oak stake.”

“See Bonnie you needed to understand,” Kai continued. “You needed to understand what it was like to have someone take everything away from you. You needed to understand what I felt for the past 200 years after a certain bitch killed my entire coven. So, do you understand now? Do you know how it feels? Do you know how it fucking-

Kai’s mad rant was effectively cut short when his head was torn off. Klaus held his head as Kai’s dead body fell to the ground. Klaus did not even remember the nanosecond it took to him speed over and rip this sick asshole’s head off.

In fact, Klaus was hardly registering anything since Kol’s once lively chocolate eyes lost their light. Kai’s head fell from his grasp as Klaus’s knees buckled, getting reacquainted with the floor once again.

He should have saved Kol.

He should have done something. Caught the damn stake. Stepped in front of Kol. Killed Kai before he even pulled out the stake. Something. But it all happened so fast.

_He just wanted to show him the werewolves._

The image of Henrik’s broken body manifested itself in Klaus’s mind and Klaus felt himself falling over the edge.

_“Klaus!”_

Klaus felt someone kneel in front of him as their knees touched his.

_“Klaus!”_

Warm hands clasped his cheeks.

“Klaus!”

Klaus blinked and he finally saw her. He saw Caroline’s tear stained face, the pain and shock swimming in her blue eyes. Of course, it would be her to pull him away from the edge.

“You have to get Bonnie. Get her away from Kol’s body,” Caroline’s voice trembled. As soon as she said the words, Klaus became aware of the piercing wails that echoed throughout the destroyed church. He looked over to see Bonnie still clutching Kol’s body. Tears ran down her face as she screamed Kol’s name over and over again.

“We need to get her out of here. But she won’t let us near her, she only gives us an aneurysm if we try. But I think you are the only one who can get through to her,” Caroline’s grasp tightened on his face. “You cannot check out on us now, Klaus. Bonnie needs you. I need you.”

“This is…” Klaus began.

“Not your fault,” Caroline finished. “This is not your fault. Don’t you dare believe it is.”

For a second, Klaus could only think that no one had ever looked at him with such faithful conviction…like they actually believed in him.

***

Two days later, the heartbreak and grief still lingered in the air, casting a dark shadow in the atmosphere. They were all mourning the loss of their friend who had been with them for centuries. Bonnie, of course, had taken it the hardest.

She had refused to leave her room.

It had taken ten long, excruciating minutes for Klaus to pull her away from Kol’s body that day. She had refused to let him go, refused to believe that Kol was actually dead. Klaus hated that he had to be the one to break her heart even further, that he had to open her eyes to reality.

_‘Bonnie! Kol is dead. He is gone. That body you are holding is empty. It is not him!’ Klaus gripped her arm, as he repeated the same mantra in his head to himself._

Sighing at the memory, Klaus knocked on her door. He was wary as to what he would find behind her door. On the fifth knock when he still had not received an answer, Klaus decided it was time to stop the niceties.

“Bonnie,” Klaus sighed when he saw her. She was still in her torn wedding dress. Her hair was a wild mess with wilting flowers clinging to the tangled strands for dear life. The puffy skin surrounding those green eyes indicated that there had been tears not too long ago.

But the thing that caught Klaus’s eye the most was the book she was reading through. She was reading the grimoire of the darker magics.

“What are you doing?” Klaus asked Bonnie, although the answer was rather obvious. It took a few moments before she responded.

“I am going to fix everything.”

“With Expression?” Klaus spoke incredulously.

“If that is what it takes,” Bonnie spoke lowly, her eyes never once leaving the writings in the book.

“So, you are going to use it to what? Bring back Kol? Reverse fucking time? All of the above?” Klaus raised his voice. Bonnie remained silent.

“This is not what Kol would have wanted for you,” Klaus shook his head.

“I don’t care,” Bonnie grounded out, finally looking at Klaus. “Do you know what this feels like? Do you know what it’s like to live without the love of your life? Well, I can tell you it hurts. It hurts so much and everything from my soul to my heart aches. I need him back, Klaus. I need him. And if you cannot support me in this…I will leave.”

“Oh, Bonnie,” Klaus closed his eyes.

Later that night when Klaus was gazing out his window, having his 1000th existential crisis, questioning the world for what seemed like the millionth time, he saw her. He saw her wrapped in her black cloak with her bag in her hand.

And when his blue eyes meet her teary green, Klaus simply looked away pretending he didn’t see Bonnie mouth the words _‘Farewell, my friend’_.

“She’s gone, isn’t she?” Klaus heard Katherine’s voice from behind him. He turned to look at her, his oldest companion. Katherine’s brown eyes looked as if they had a film of glass on them.

“Yes,” Klaus said.

“First Kol, n-now Bon…” Katherine’s voice broke. “I need to find Elena.”

Klaus’s heart nearly broke even more at the sound of Katherine’s sobs as she retreated. Katherine Pierce reduced to tears. Who would have thought?

It was early the next morning and Klaus had not slept at all. Every time he closed his eyes, he saw his brother lying there with ashen grey skin, his eyes without an ounce of life. He saw Bonnie with tears streaming down her face and darkness running down her veins. But the funny thing was even with his eyes open, he still saw all of those things.

Suddenly, Klaus felt a hand slip into his. He looked to see Caroline sitting next to him.

“I am right here, Niklaus. Let it all out. I am right here. Let yourself fall for once, in just this moment, and I promise, I will catch you,” Caroline caressed the side of his face with her hand. And for the first time since that whole painful ordeal started, tears fell from Klaus’s face. And they kept falling until he finally fell asleep with Caroline’s arms wrapped around him.

***

Their fractured group slowly began to heal, finding peace with what happened. They each did so in different ways.

Elena spent each day writing in her journal, detailing their everyday life.

Katherine would steal Elena from her journal and they would spend a day traveling as Katherine showed Elena all of the wonders Italy had to offer.

Caroline took on the project of decorating the entire manor, saying that a new atmosphere was what they needed the most.

As for Klaus, he found his little piece of solace in drawing and painting. Whether he drew a simple picture of a horse or painted the complex intricacies of an entire town, Klaus felt a bit at peace. But only a bit.

The scary reality was that Klaus did find tranquility, a whole lot of it, but not in painting. No, it came from a blonde-haired spitfire with a penchant for decoration. It came from Caroline.

In the months following Kol’s death and Bonnie’s departure, Klaus and Caroline somehow became closer than they already were. They formed a bond that Klaus appreciated from the deepest part of his heart. She had kept her promise, the one swearing she would catch him. The days when it hit him the most, his brother was dead and his best friend gone, Caroline was there for him. Whether she would say something to make him smile and laugh or just hold his hand in silence, she was there.

The funny thing was Caroline noticed when Klaus needed her. And Klaus was not an easy person to read, centuries of being a callous killer easily created a cool façade. But Caroline saw through it, she saw him. And in return, Klaus began to see her.

He saw the way her nose would scrunch up each time before she laughed. Klaus saw how she naturally smiled when she talked. He saw how sunshine literally seemed to radiate off her golden hair and creamy, fair skin. And Klaus saw not one ounce of hate or cruelty reflecting in her blue eyes.

And it was a casual Sunday morning whilst staring into those blue, the startling realization hit him.

Klaus was completely and totally and most definitely in love with her. He was fully immersed within one Caroline Forbes and that scared the shit out of him. But Klaus knew (like most eternally damned man) in his heart of hearts that he could never tell her. Caroline would never return the feelings he had for her. And even in the slightest, smallest chance that she did, Caroline did not deserve him. She deserved only the best, good things in the world and he was not one of them

So, he would never tell her.

Of course, that resolution only lasted for a day when Klaus saw her about to leave through the front door. She wore a red silk gown with a shawl wrapped around her. A red silk hat with a feather attached sat on her head. In her hands were a fan and a purse.

“Where are you off to?” Klaus asked.

“I am going to the theater with Tyler,” Caroline said. Klaus bristled on the inside and fought to contain a growl. For the past two weeks, Caroline had been going out with that mutt. Apparently, Tyler was a friend from Caroline’s past she had met two years after she had turned. According to her, they got along so well because he had just activated his own werewolf curse. And now that Tyler was in Italy, Caroline wanted to spend time with her old friend.

But Klaus knew what was going on. The mutt was attempting to court her but what pissed Klaus off the most was the fact Caroline was letting him.

“Careful that he does not bite you,” Klaus remarked.

“Seriously Klaus,” Caroline sighed, annoyed. “I do not understand why you dislike him so much. You hardly know him.”

“I don’t need to know him to know that I don’t like him,” even that sounded like bullshit to Klaus’s ears.

“You are full of horse shit,” Caroline snipped.

“So are you if you think a romance can happen between a vampire and a werewolf.”

“Said the half vampire half werewolf himself.”

“Obviously I would know best then,” Klaus raised his voice.

“What the hell are you even saying? You are not making any sense!” Caroline exclaimed. She was right. Klaus was not making any sense and he knew it. He just really didn’t want her to leave. He really didn’t want her with Tyler at all.

“Do you not want me to leave? Is that it? Do you expect me to always be at your beck and call?” Caroline demanded.

“No!”

“Then what is your problem?!

“I love you!” Klaus exploded, surprising the hell out of the both of them. Caroline’s eyes went wide.

“What?” Caroline’s voice was barely above a whisper. Klaus took a deep breath. He was really going to do this.

I love you, Caroline. I am in love with you. In fact, I am in love with everything about you. I am in love with the way your voice is slightly raspier in the mornings when you first awake. I am in love with the way you care for Elena though she is no longer a fragile, human girl. I am in love with the way you see good in everything. All these things and more I love about you and I do not see myself stopping any time soon!” Klaus had raised his voice to a much higher volume because if he was going to do this, he was going all out. Klaus was going full throttle. He was taking the ultimate leap, the land and fall be damned.

“My bloody heart damn near beats every time I’m within your presence. I see you, I adore you, I love you!” Klaus finished, his chest heaving slightly. Caroline looked at him, her eyes wide and her mouth still closed. Klaus softened and took a step forward. His hand cupped her soft cheek and he ignored the pang in his chest when she jumped at his touch.

“Will you not say something, love?” he asked. He was so close to her, he could feel the little warmth radiating from her. As she opened her mouth, Klaus felt his chest constrict, this was the moment…

“T-tyler,” Caroline sputtered out. “H-he is expecting me. I have to go.”

In a single flash, Caroline was gone and Klaus was standing there, hand still raised in there, breathing in her fading flowery scent.

Later on, Klaus was sitting on his bed, on his third bottle of rum, hating his high as fuck tolerance. He hadn’t felt this bad since the night Tatia professed her love for his older brother. Except this feeling was ten times worse because he loved this girl ten times more. It was almost funny how the love of his undead life turned out to be a girl the exact opposite of his first love.

Tatia had dark, wild hair.

Caroline was a sunny blonde who would never allow her hair to be less than impeccable.

Tatia had olive skin with dark eyes to match.

Caroline had an ivory complexion and bright blue eyes.

Tatia was an empowered woman, a damn near warrior.

Though Caroline was just as empowered, she still had girlish, childish tendencies with her dramatic ways and neurotic behavior and natural defiance and curious optimism and fuck…Klaus was so in love with her.

Klaus took another gulp, reveling in the burn in his throat.

“Klaus.”

Klaus turned his head to see Caroline standing in his doorway. Her cheeks were flushed and her eyes held a wild look. But more importantly, Klaus could smell him. He could smell Tyler all over her which indicated to the obvious.

Klaus instantly rose up from his bed. How dare she be with Tyler directly after his profession? How dare she make a mockery him and his feelings?

And just when he was about to tear her a new one, she kissed him. She kissed him. With her lips pressed against his and the taste of her on the tip of his tongue, Klaus was catapulted through space and time. He was rescued from oblivion and delivered to paradise.

But all too soon Caroline was pulling away with a muttered, “Fuck,” and Klaus had to restrain himself from seeking out her lips again.

“Why?” Klaus looked into her eyes.

“I realized something while I was gone,” Caroline stated. “I really fucking love you, Klaus Mikaelson and for some strange reason I do not regret that in the slightest.”

As soon as the words had left her mouth, Klaus was kissing her again.

“Wait, don’t you want to know-” Caroline had attempted to say while pulling away but Klaus wanted to hear none of it as he pressed his lips against her. He knew that she loved him and that was damn well enough a thousand times over.

The kissing escalated, he touches grew even bolder, the lust and passion was unrestrained and suddenly Klaus was standing in front of a very naked Caroline. Tracing his hand over the length of her body and memorizing every single detail he had never before encountered, Klaus had this sudden urge to bite her. He wanted to taste her. He wanted to feed into that connection that had been building for so long. And just when his fangs began to protrude, Caroline quickly had her own teeth sinking into his neck.

Klaus almost combusted in that moment. He felt an overwhelming orgasmic, spiritual feeling come over him and he swore there was a divine. When Caroline finally pulled away with his blood on her lips, Klaus felt himself falling yet again. And when they finally fall into his bed, he realized he was quite alright with that plunging feeling.

“I have something for you,” Klaus whispered into Caroline’s ear the next morning. They were lying under his sheets, basking in their newfound love and glory. Their legs were tangled together and Caroline’s head rested on his chest whilst Klaus held her in his arms.

“You do?” Caroline pulled away to look at him. Klaus nodded his head, before moving to get out of the bed. He rummaged through his desk drawer before pulling out a canvas paper. Klaus handed it to Caroline.

“Oh, Klaus,” she gasped with a hand on her chest. He had painted her. He had painted her in her bridesmaid gown and it was magnificent.

While Klaus looked at her, he realized that he could paint her a hundred times and yet, he would never quite capture the beauty she truly possessed.


End file.
